UP Economics Research Lab

Akito’s research focuses on development economics, with particular interests in human capital investment, including health, sanitation, water, child, and education in low- and middle-income countries. His work combines rigorous empirical methods, including RCTs and large-scale administrative and survey data. He has worked with international organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Development Innovation Lab (DIL) at the University of Chicago.

Eugenio's research spans digital economics and business economics, with a growing focus on the economic implications of artificial intelligence and technological change in Latin America. His empirical work includes field experiments on ethics communication in organizations and gender inclusion in senior leadership, areas he developed during his tenure as Director of the Research Center on Women in Senior Management (CIMAD) at IPADE Business School. 

Esteban’s research focuses on political economy, institutions, and economic development, examining how governance structures, incentives, and public policy shape macroeconomic and social outcomes. His work spans topics including monetary policy committees, land tenure and agrarian investment, free trade agreements, sovereign default, natural resource governance, innovation networks, and local economic institutions, with a broader interest in how institutional design influences development, productivity, and decision-making under uncertainty.

Majo's research interests include labor economics, institutional economics, and urban development. Her background in government affairs has made her particularly attuned to public policy issues and their real-world implications. She has experience working with labor market data from Mexico and Latin America, and her graduate research has focused on disability as a determinant of labor market outcomes, with attention to heterogeneities in educational endowments across individuals. More recently, she has contributed to a project in the area of urban planning and development.

José Miguel's research focuses on human capital investment, with particular interest in how educational trajectories—beyond years of schooling—shape labor market opportunities. His broader interests span poverty and inequality, public policy, behavioral science, and the role of institutions in shaping social outcomes. He is the founder of the Student Research Club (CIA UP) and a co-author of applied research on corporate sustainability with Roland Berger.

Marytell’s research interests center on inequality, social mobility, and the role of family background in shaping economic opportunities across generations. Her work focuses on understanding how institutional and socioeconomic conditions influence intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity. She has contributed to research on government digitalization, and corruption and economic growth in Mexico, and is the founder and former editor of Merkatus, the first student-led economics journal at Universidad Panamericana.

Juan Alvaro's research interests span both macroeconomic and microeconomic empirical analysis, with a particular focus on advanced econometric methods and machine learning applications in economics. His work combines causal inference, time series analysis, and high-dimensional statistical techniques to study topics related to inflation dynamics, public policy, household behavior, and development economics. He is especially interested in applying modern quantitative methods to policy-relevant questions in macroeconomics, health, and labor markets.